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Reports from the
year 2006
SPRING
2006 - A tale of figs and beer
25th
February saw us appear on a bright but very cold Saturday in Cambridge
at the Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival, (IVFDF for short), a student
run event hosted by different universities each year. The day featured
dancing at various venues in and around the city centre, with generally
enthusiastic audiences even if at some venues they were mainly
other teams and hangers-on. A special mention also to our excellent
organiser, 'lucky' Emma, although sadly 'lucky' Emma's efforts in
choosing numbers on behalf of the team for the 17 tickets we had for
National Lottery draw later in the day proved to be even more hopeless
than all of our many previous attempts. The day was rounded off for us
with a ceilidh spot at the Junction 24 ceilidh, and the 3 dance spot
(which included our sword dance) went down extremely well with a very
receptive and appreciative audience.
Saturday 18th March saw a small BB contingent once again attend the
Fezheads Fig n Date Fayre, this time held in Kenn near Exeter. After 2
'sensible' dances (if Coconuts and the premiere of 'Knees Up' ("it
made me laugh") can be called sensible) the day degenerated into
the reason everyone was there i.e. frivolous games such as Fruit
Conkers, some belly dancing, and Tim's now annual entry into the
Fezheads 'Fig or Die' game, a game in which you have to eat chilli figs
until you lose or are extremely ill or both in Tim's case - though he very
creditably got down to the last 2 again.
 On
23rd April we joined Hook Eagle and several other local teams for a St.
George's Day extravaganza, though old George would have been a bit
disappointed with the weather on his special day which tended to the
damp and the miserable, though of course at no stage did it rain
(properly) on BB, oh no. Jane was able to make this event with us, and
showed that she had not forgotten how any of the dances went, unlike
..... oh, let's not go there. However our repertoire on the day did
feature our rehabilitated Albemarle's Hop, and a suitably cheesy 'Knees
Up', filmed in all its glory for a student dissertation - wonder what
the examiners will make of it?! The day finished with Andy being
presented with an inscribed tankard from the landlord of the Waterwitch
for no particularly good reason, which we also found only works left
handed..
The following Sunday, 30th April, we made an afternoon appearance at the
Reading Beer Festival, an event featuring predominantly beer (the clue's
in the name), and held at King's Meadow in Reading. At the particular
time we were there, there were lots of people and no other organised
entertainment, so by default we drew some reasonable audiences, who
being full of beer seemed quite well disposed towards us. But we all
enjoyed the event, and found we had a very friendly reaction during the
afternoon. Indeed the world certainly seemed a very happy place to us
through our beer tinted glasses.....
SUMMER
2006 - We go out West, and just keep on posing
Saturday
13th May saw us at the Winchester Folk Festival, a fine event with many
good sides present. After some performances around the town, we took
part in the procession (mainly consisting of posing for photos) and then
finished near the cathedral where we danced around ex-member Mike Lyth, on a
short visit from the north of
England
and
Thailand
. Later on, we somehow got a place in the show performance sets (in
which we were not originally scheduled), thanks to the organisers of the
spot being friendly Great Westerners. This though gave them the liberty
to introduce us as ‘Berkshire Bedlam – one of the second best Morris
teams in the country’ which we rather took umbrage to as we’re quite
happy just being in the top 99%. The day finished well too for our young
percussionist Bob who managed to find a pub in which to watch
Liverpool
clawing a dodgy victory on penalties from the jaws of defeat (playing a
nice drum roll as Stevie G raised the trophy ....).
 2 weeks later
we were off to
Exeter
for the legendary Great Western Whit weekend tour. Overall this was a
fabulous event, with a packed programme of interesting places to visit,
evening entertainments, and some fine dancing throughout from GW and the
other sides (Windsor, Black Adder and Glory of the West) plus some great
hospitality from our GW hosts. Events started on the Saturday with
dancing in
Exeter
city centre and later at The Quay, where one of GW’s dances involved
crossing the river Exe by bridge and returning by ferry while still
performing the same dance (though some of them looked a little jaded on
their return). Saturday evening featured the GW Whit Tour ceilidh, while
the Sunday involved a coach tour visiting several of the delights of
South Devon
(including a slightly chilly beach and very chilly sea at Blackpool
Sands ) with a lunch break at the Seven Stars at Totnes - nice lunch but
no pud provided, so Jerry, Lee and Jameson took matters into their own hands by
ordering their own, causing a near riot as most of Great Western attempted to
grab a spoonful. In the evening there was a communal South Sea Islands themed party
in Ashburton with various home made entertainment. Earlier in the day Black
Adder's Sarah had mightily impressed by being able to jump into her shoes from a
standing position, so one of the evening's entertainment spots was a member of
each team trying to do the same - Lee battled bravely for us and came close to
succeeding (but its much harder than it might sound).  After
him, Dave Brassington from GW, after much over elaboration, managed to do it
quite spectacularly and apparently spontaneously, but we later found he had
spent the entire afternoon practising .... Some of the spots took their cue from ‘South Pacific’, with Windsor washing
their men right our of their hair in a variety of interesting bath robes
and towels, before we recycled the cockney dance dressed as sailor boys
to the tune of a Life on the Ocean Wave. We more or less looked the part
thanks to Bob (honorary cabin boy for the spot) doctoring some plain
white T-shirts to look like sailor outfits, coupled with Jerry’s web
sourcing of suitable hats and other vaguely Caribbean gear. The dance
also had some extra features such as the staggering hay on the side
(including Jerry being spectacularly seasick in Mike Boston’s lap),
before finishing by Bob climbing the horizontal rigging (made by the
rest of BB lying down flat), giving everyone a good kicking along the
way while ‘climbing’. You had to be there, really …. After
our turn, Black Adder performed a dance in a communal pink outfit that
was part elephant, part octopus, but was very entertaining anyway, and
then GW, also as sailor boys though with an American slant, hammed their
way through a spirited rendition of Nothing Like a Dame (and indeed
Quinton was absolutely nothing like a dame though the lipstick was
good).
The Monday saw us at Topsham for more dancing for all the sides,
including birthday boy Simon being hoisted aloft by GW, and some of GW
being physically danced on top of (using a dance board) by most of Black
Adder (not quite hard enough though - really stamp those clogs next time
ladies). The day finished in a
minor gale outside The Lighter on Topsham Quay, after which it was time
to head back temporarily to real life in
Berkshire
- though just a few days later we were heading west again to join Holt
Morris at the Holt (village) music festival. After a particularly
uninspiring period of weather (and very wet May) it was good to have the
first truly hot day of the year for this, which turned out to be a very
pleasant event, with morris being performed before the event and during
the afternoon on an outdoor boarded area in between the various musical
acts taking place in the main marquee. As usual it was good to see our
friends from Holt, who are always excellent company and fine dancers,
and there were also a number of other attraction on the large playing
fields, with some of BB being particularly attracted later on by a hay
cart ride (because it was free, chaps and chapesses?).
The next weekend (Sunday 1 June) we were once again at the Kirtlington
Lamb Ale. We were somewhat depleted at the start of the day when our
planned side of 6 was reduced to 5 when Lee (or ‘Lobster Boy’ as he
is now known) found he was suffering badly from sunburn from the day
before, particularly on his legs, and decided he couldn’t make it.
Nevertheless the 5 who did go carried on as best they could, including
doing a somewhat depleted procession (though you will be reassured to know that
we posed wherever we could) and
performing ‘Knees Up’ later in the day (now firmly established as
John's all time favourite dance) as the show spot to a somewhat bemused
audience. To his credit, Lee did appear later in the day, mainly so he
could pick up Jameson to accompany him to Manchester where Jameson was
being filmed the next day in University Challenge as a member of the
Reading University team, where his knowledge of the Green Cross Code
apparently came in very useful (watch his episode in autumn 2006 to find
out more....).
On Thursday 15th we were at The Bell at Aldworth again with Old Speckled
Hen and Rockhopper for a fine evening’s dancing and the customary
sandwiches from the pub, and then the following Thursday (22nd) it was
our annual trip to the Red Lion at Avebury around Summer Solstice time
for an evening of dancing and later singing with our friends from Holt
Morris again – as usual a good time was had by all, especially
as most of the solstice nutters had cleared off by then. Some
particularly fine singing this year, with Andy doing us especially
proud.
Finally in
June, on the weekend of 24th/25th, a select contingent set off for the
Four Fools Folk Festival, at Chorley, near
Preston
. The Saturday’s dancing consisted of quite a lot of precinct and not
much pub, but the Sunday on the main site was better – although Paul
had to leave early, the side was joined for the day by Mike Lyth who was
very welcome and showed he could still trot out all the old standards -
though posing opportunities were a little limited.
Thursday 13th July saw us at The Cricketers, Hartley Wintney, along with
Mayflower and Fleet, for a very pleasant evening of dancing in what is
always a great setting. Jane joined us briefly, but sadly not with
fiddle, on account of having done a Wayne Rooney and fractured a
metatarsal (though I don’t believe
Wayne
also had a pregnancy to carry around as well while recuperating). This
was followed by the Windsor Day of Dance on Saturday 15th, in the middle
of a particularly hot spell, involving some good venues around Windsor
before some of the side finished off the day with a trip on the Windsor
Wheel, a temporary ‘London eye’ type structure in Alexandra Gardens
alongside the Thames. Strangely though Jameson, who gets vertigo going
up stairs, didn’t join us for it .....
 Then on 22nd
/ 23rd we were at
Warwick
for what has become a biennial appearance at the Warwick Folk Festival.
This is always one of the highlights of the season for us, with a good
mix of teams taking part and good dance spots around the town on both
days. After starting on the stage at the campsite on Saturday morning,
we went into town where we took part in the BBC local radio’s ‘Big
Dance’, an attempt to break the world record for the number of people
simultaneously doing the same dance up and down the country. For 15
minutes we followed the choreography being demonstrated on a show stage,
along with about 500 other people, many of whom were other morris
dancers or festival goers. I think it would be fair to say we put our
own interpretation on the dances, but nevertheless had a good time and
later found out the attempt had been successful – so we are all joint
world record holders now, and a photo of Simon and Yvonne grooving away
made the BBC Radio Coventry website. In the afternoon we had a good spot
outside The Roebuck, but then the heavens opened, and we had to spend
the next 2 hours in the pub waiting for a break (though Jameson briefly
cheered himself up by finding a nearby garage to get some much needed
brake fluid, as you do in the middle of a Folk Festival). Anyway,
there’s only so much Morris Charades anyone can stand so eventually
even though the rain hadn’t quite stopped, we made our way to St.
Nicholas Park where the rained off procession would have finished,
and performed to a bedraggled and bemused group of Japanese tourists who
had merely being trying to shelter from the rain, though I think they
enjoyed us, especially one of them who joined in enthusiastically
throughout. After our customary
Warwick
pizza, it was off to the ceilidh with Jabadaw, where after Flag and Bone
did the early evening spot we did the later spot, performing the same
set we had done earlier in the year at IVDF i.e. Wheel of Fortune,
Swords, and Fairies, all in swords kit, which always gives fantastic
opportunities for posing, eagerly seized by several members of the side.
As far as we could tell it went down well again and we had some good
feedback – though we noted Sally Wearing couldn’t stop laughing
throughout – you’re supposed to swoon with admiration, Sally, not
laugh your head off .....
The Sunday featured more dancing in town, finishing at The Zetland, a
fine venue on the Sunday when the street outside is closed to traffic
and the crowd brings the best out of most of the sides, though we
possibly established a record for the most sticks ever dropped during
Jolly Jockey Sticks, and another one for the most coconuts broken during
our Coconuts dance, much to the chagrin of Simon and Yvonne who knew
they had the doubtful pleasure of replenishing the coconuts stocks (yet
again) before the next outing.
A particular mention here too as the season draws on of the fine
contribution of our melodeon player Sue, and drummer boy Bob, who
support the side tirelessly throughout the season, and consistently
produce excellent and uplifting music for the dancers to perform to,
despite frequently only getting a nano-seconds notice of the tune they
are required to play for the set that has just formed and is waiting
expectantly. We would be totally lost without them (and are only
occasionally lost with them)! Nice too to have Jane join us for the
Warwick ceilidh spot despite her broken foot and dodgy shoulder - I'm
sure the 10 minute spot has fully justified the extra months of pain
which will have been caused by taking part .....
AUGUST - DEC
2006 - Big Capering time - and the Russians move in .....
  Early
August saw us off on another unusual escapade, even by our own usual
high standards of unusuality. During the earlier part of the year, we
had been working on developing a joint show along with our good friends
The Outside Capering Crew, to be called ‘The Big Caper’, with a view
to performing it in larger venues where we felt there would be a
suitable audience and where the 2 sides together could sustain a longer
show with more variety than either could manage on its own. The
challenge was to find a blend of existing dances and routines from both
repertoires that meant the sides could perform complementary and in some
cases joint dances without losing their own individual identities. In
August we had a chance to put it to the test, when The Big Caper went to
Belgium to take part in the Ka-Dans Festival, a festival spread over
several days based in and around the town and castle of Torhout, and
featuring a number of different performances in a variety of settings
from ourselves and other visiting sides from Mexico, Hungary, Argentina
and a more local Walloon side.
Our
performances started on the Friday evening (11th August) in the market
place of Torhout, where The Big Caper waited patiently for their turn as
the other visiting sides performed on the impressive outdoor stage. As
we eventually took our place, down came the rain – which unfortunately
was to be quite a feature of our whole trip despite it having been up to
this point one of the hottest and driest summers on record. Sharp eyed
readers of these Berkshire Bedlam news updates will no doubt at this
point be saying “hang on a minute, this is Berkshire Bedlam, and it
never rains on them” – which is still true, as remember we were
performing as The Big Caper …… Despite
the rain, we performed a short selection of our dances before
retreating, like the local townsfolk, to the astounding choice of
excellent bars all round the
Market Square
where we met up with our host families who would look after us superbly
for the next few days.
  On
the Saturday we had a more formal welcome and opening ceremony, again in
the Market Place, where we gave and received gifts and a welcome beer,
and later performed a short set of dances. The next morning (Sunday) we
were invited to attend the church ceremony in Wijnendale where each of
the guest teams was asked to perform a suitable piece. For us,
Lawrence
played his fabulous waltz tune while some dancers performed a ‘
Rosa
’ style waltz at the front of the church, which turned out to be
appropriately in keeping with the occasion.
 After
the morning church ceremony, the afternoon featured the main event of
the week – the Ka-Dans Festival show, held in the grounds of the
splendid
Wijnendale
Castle
, with a large outdoor stage and spacious seating for the audience set
underneath a huge overhanging canopy of trees. This show featured all of
the international teams, including The Big Caper in a proper show
setting for the first time. We put on a 40 minute performance, with some
of the best dances from each of our 2 sides built into a complete and
carefully sequenced show. We had also prepared a joint opening and
ending, with the final dance in particular, done to the Crew’s 4-Up
tune, featuring choreography put together specifically for the show
including stick throwing around the Crew’s bacca pipe dancers, and 3
people (Jerry and Rob for BB, Tracey for the Crew) performing a
spectacular leapfrog over everyone else to finish. We were very pleased
with the overall effect, which seemed to go down well with the
appreciative audience. It also provided a springboard for us to build
on, as we were to do 3 more big shows over the next few days and with
each one we learned a little more about what worked well.
But before any more performances, on the Monday morning we were free to
enjoy a trip to
Bruges
. Well, I say enjoy, – normally Bruges is a fascinating city, full of
dramatic and historic architecture, with its quaint canal system, and
packed with interesting shops, cafes and bars. However, in the downpour
which accompanied us this particular morning, it just looked – wet.
Very wet. Very very wet. However by the evening we had dried off (just),
ready for our next formal show, performing to a packed audience in the
church at Wijnendale, where we had put together a different selection of
dances since some of the audience had seen the previous day’s show.
Once again this was very well received, with Simon P in particular
working hard to establish a good rapport with the audience, including
getting several members up on the stage to learn Shepherds Hey with us
(a good chance for some of us to learn it too).
On Tuesday
morning we again had some free time, and it rained. No surprises there
then. It cleared briefly in the early afternoon, when we had been asked
to visit another castle and dance while a long procession of vintage
cars went by. We did manage some dancing before the cars arrived, but as
the first one approached, so did the dark clouds. By now we were
learning that once they get going, Belgian downpours are amongst the
most prolific in the world, and would put most self respecting Amazonian
rain forests to shame. So as the cars streamed by, in more senses than
one, for the most part we could only stand and watch from under our
temporary shelters. But it did clear a little later on, and most of BB
were able to do a short set of dances outside the excellent café which
raised the spirits if not all the clouds.
 Wednesday
was the last formal day of the Festival. In the afternoon, we performed
another successful show to some of the older citizens of the area. And
then in the evening we had been asked at short notice to take part with
the Argentinians in a show at De Panne, some 50 miles away at the coast,
in a beautifully appointed theatre in the modern civic centre. The
theatre was packed, with the audience spilling out into the aisles and
through the doors, possibly related to the fact that entry was free. The
Argentinian side was on first, and performed an excellent set (not at
all a load of bolas), but despite them being a tough act to follow we
felt we rose to the occasion accordingly. We had put together an
hour’s show, the longest we had done, and for many people it turned
out to be the highlight of our trip. By now we were all used to the
format, our changeovers were getting slick, we were well rehearsed and
our confidence was rising. This in turn was being reflected in the warm
appreciation we were getting from the audience who seemed to be enjoying
the mix of good dancing, humour, and entertainment in the show, mixed
with the superb musicianship of our 4 musical maestros, Sue, Lawrence
and Mark on melodeons, and Bob on percussion. And once again the final
leapfrogs in the big finale were all well synchronised, with Jerry and
Rob again managing to stop just short of the stage edge. And then the
performing was over! – and we returned back to Wijnendale to catch the
last part of the end of Festival party night with more gift exchanging
and beer imbibing.
Overall the trip was a great experience, and gave all of us the chance
to present and perform high quality English morris to appreciative and
enthusiastic audiences in bigger venues than normal, while proving along
the way that such a thing when done well can and does entertain modern
day audiences. The trip was hard work in some ways, with all of the
shows mentioned above needing time put aside for planning and rehearsal,
which was something everyone had to get used to. But most people also
managed to enjoy something of a holiday, helped in particular by the
wonderful hospitality displayed by our host families, all of whom were
great though I’m going to mention Valerie and Wim from personal
experience for whom nothing was too much trouble. Overall all those who
went thought that the Big Caper had worked well, and is something that
should be continued alongside the separate identities of the 2 sides.
And that was just as well, as only a couple of weeks later The Big Caper
was performing again – this time making its
UK
debut at the Wallingford Bunkfest. During the day on Saturday (2nd Sept)
we were performing as BB, and enjoyed ourselves as always at what is
turning into an excellent part of the Festival calendar. Then in the
early evening, we put on a one hour Big Caper show on the main Kinecroft
stage. For this we used our Belgian experiences to piece together the
best bits of our shows over there, but with more patter and stunts to
link some of the items than had been possible with a non English
speaking audience. Once again all those watching seemed to enjoy the
variety of material on offer, which included a guest appearance as an
animal character from Stephen Rowley, and another audience participative
Shepherd Hey. And once again the big finale worked out OK – and
somehow we just kept within our one hour time slot. It was also
rewarding to perform to a morris-friendly English audience who seemed to
enjoy seeing something a little different. We are looking forward to
being able to build further on this in 2007!
 Meanwhile
some other things in life don’t really change very much, like our
enjoyable annual night out with Basingclog and Hook Eagle at The Plough,
Little London, on Tuesday 5th September. After this, there was something
of a break for BB in performing until our now traditional Bunfight /
Wokingham Winter Carnival weekend on 25th/26th November. This year’s
Bunfight theme was ‘Carry On Up The Bunfight’ which brought the
customary array of weird and wonderful outfits – even more so this
year as there is almost certainly some ‘Carry On’ film which has a
connection with any fancy dress outfit anyone could think of. Amongst
this year’s offerings were a mix of Caesar-themed
Romans (emperors and centurions), several Campers, a Cleo, some
Cowboys and Cowgirls, someone up the Khyber, Constables, Spies, and many
more. Music as always was supplied by the ubiquitous Phungus, this year
with Saul on drums, and with Hugh Crabtree calling (once he had escaped
from the bar at Twickenham where he had taken refuge after the
afternoon’s rugby international).  In
between the well called and well played dances, BB performed their
‘Knees Up’ dance as a first spot, and then after the traditional and
suitably bizarre ‘Irish Bingo’ and more dances came on for their
second spot. By use of just a few clothing props and a lot of
imagination the audience were transported to the little town of
Herrebski (you have to think about that), just a few steppes from
Russia, and entertained by a Russian style dance to the ‘Hopak’
tune, featuring various cartwheels and acrobatics of sorts, lots of
‘Hoi-s’ and this year fully incorporating the dancing skills of Sue
and Bob as Russian girls. Again this seemed to go down well, and the
audience as is now traditional demanded an encore, helped as ever by
Hugh telling them to. And in the encore we almost got the dance right
much to our surprise.
Next day was
the Wokingham Winter Carnival. After a thoroughly unpromising start to
the day with much rain, when BB came out to strut their stuff the rain
almost disappeared and we finished up having a very good day. Well, you
know what they say, I-N-R-O-B-B (only on T-B-C).
For full reports from 2005 go to the BB 2005 Monthly Diary
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